


piece of cake

by kyasuu



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: And a bit sad, Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, kama is a bit tsundere, of sorts, spoilers for the ooku event, this was written as a character audition for rp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24017794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyasuu/pseuds/kyasuu
Summary: Kama peers at the cake carefully, taking a cautious whiff of the treat. It smells of sugar and strawberries, and her mouth waters a little. With a little too much focus, she takes her first bite, and something sweet and delicious but nottoosweet fills her mouth. There’s something familiar about it, too, and almost unconsciously she smiles a little.“It’s good,” she allows herself to admit. As far as offerings go, this is hardly the worst one she’s gotten.Ritsuka brings Kama a slice of cake.
Relationships: Kamadeva | Assassin & Fujimaru Ritsuka
Kudos: 16





	piece of cake

**Author's Note:**

> I was given this prompt to work with:
>
>> Write about Kamadeva's thoughts and feelings that drove her to become a Beast in Tokugawa's World Changing Labyrinth. What was the purpose of doing this? With this audition you can be as creative as you want, as long as you fill the prompt.  
> 
> 
> I do have to admit I'm terrible at following prompts but hopefully this one's not too bad. 

Chaldea is a new experience for Kama.

It’s noisy, it’s too crowded, it’s full of idiots, it’s got _that_ woman _and_ her blasted husband, that _Beast_ is always lurking around the corner…

She doesn’t leave, though. There’s something about it that draws her in, keeps her here in spite of the vast multitude of things that irritate her. 

(Maybe it’s the crushing loneliness she won’t acknowledge.)

Even if it pisses her off, Kama loves it anyway. Then again, Kama loves everything equally, even if she hates it. An oxymoron, perhaps, but Kama doesn’t think too much on it; it’s simply in her nature to love. She can’t change that, after all.

(Maybe she wishes she could, every so often. Giving, giving, _giving_ , only to be burned by the recipient--it hurts, sometimes.

Love is… it’s scorching. It feels like it’s eating her up from the inside out.)

Kama lets out a breath, rolling onto her back to stare up at the ceiling of Ritsuka’s room. The sheets underneath her are too hot from her own body heat, and she scowls a little at the white expanse over her head, like that’ll make it go away. Predictably, it does nothing but make her face sore.

She hears footsteps outside the room and immediately sits bolt upright, wiping the panic that had briefly overtaken her features off her face and forcing herself to relax as the door slides open. “Oh, if it isn’t my dear Master,” Kama drawls, slipping into her usual facade of arrogance.

“Hello, Kama!” Ritsuka greets her with a smile as usual. Kama’s gaze falls to the plate of cake in her hands and tries not to think about having it by forcing her gaze back to Ritsuka’s face. “Emiya made some cake earlier! It was too bad you weren’t around, but I saved you a slice.”

Kama blinks, surprised. “Whatever for?”

Ritsuka looks just as surprised as she does, cocking her head to the side ever so slightly. “Well… I thought you’d want some,” she answers, sounding a little confused. “Emiya’s got a magic touch when it comes to making food, and you haven’t gotten the chance to try it before. Or do you not like cake?”

“I don’t mind it,” Kama says slowly. She can’t exactly tell Ritsuka that she doesn’t understand _why_ she’d brought her the cake in the first place, so she simply holds a hand out. “I suppose an offering is an offering.”

“If that’s how you want to take it,” Ritsuka laughs, but it somehow doesn’t sound mocking. She puts the plate in Kama’s outstretched hand gently and hands her a fork as well. “Enjoy!”

Kama peers at the cake carefully, taking a cautious whiff of the treat. It smells of sugar and strawberries, and her mouth waters a little. With a little too much focus, she takes her first bite, and something sweet and delicious but not _too_ sweet fills her mouth. There’s something familiar about it, too, and almost unconsciously she smiles a little.

“It’s good,” she allows herself to admit. As far as offerings go, this is hardly the worst one she’s gotten.

“Isn’t it?” Ritsuka’s beaming at her for whatever reason, hands clasped together. “Next time you should go out with me. I’m sure being cooped up in here all day must get boring.”

Kama takes another bite of the cake. “Pass,” she says to the suggestion without even a moment of consideration. The prospect of interacting with the other Servants in Chaldea makes her gag. Ritsuka is bearable, but her lapdogs disgust her, even if some of them can make a decent cake.

Ritsuka seems to wilt for whatever reason. “Aw, that’s alright, I guess.” She pulls out the chair at her desk to sit down. “If you don’t want to interact with others, is there a reason why you even came to Chaldea in the first place?”

That’s a loaded question, isn’t it. Kama busies herself with the cake, but she knows there’s no way she can stall out answering that question without becoming suspicious for long. “Why does that matter to you?” Kama asks after a moment.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Ritsuka replies, her voice so understanding Kama’s brow wrinkles a little. Why ask, then? There’s no fun in dangling the answer in front of someone who isn’t desperate to know. 

Then again, Kama doesn’t want to tell, either. She doesn’t particularly want it to get out that she’d come on _Kiara'_ s recommendation, of all people it could’ve been. It’s none of Ritsuka’s business, after all. 

“You’ll just have to keep guessing then,” she tells her, lips twitching into an approximation of a self-assured smirk around the fork in her mouth. “Why the sudden curiosity?”

Ritsuka gives a short laugh, scratching the back of her head like she’s abashed. “Ah, well, I just like to learn more about my Servants! It’s good to get along, right?”

“Do you make it a habit to get along with your old enemies?” Kama inquires. Although her tone is deliberately light, the words are barbed. Maybe if she brings up their past animosity, Ritsuka will see fit to leave her alone.

(Not that Kama really wants that, if she’s to be entirely honest, but she’s wondering just how far she can push before Ritsuka decides it’s too much.)

“Um…” Ritsuka giggles sheepishly again. Kama stops, the fork hovering midway to her mouth. “Sort of. Many of the Servants here in Chaldea we’ve fought in the past. Like Kiara, for one.”

Kama grimaces at the mention of her, not bothering to hide her disgust. Belatedly, she realizes the fork is still midair, and she puts it in her mouth hastily. “Isn’t that a little naive?”

“Maybe,” Ritsuka says somberly, which surprises Kama a little. Then again, Ritsuka has been full of surprises from the beginning--since her determination to get through Kama’s labyrinth, since her _victory_ despite the odds stacked against her--so Kama thinks she should be getting used to surprise by now.

Getting used to it, huh. Kama hadn’t thought she’d be staying here long enough to get used to it, but, with a plate of delicious cake in her hands and a warm, friendly Master keeping her company, it’s starting to seem like a very real possibility.

“But I think it’s fine,” Ritsuka continues sincerely. “My Servants are all faithful to me, and they haven’t failed me yet. When the day comes that someone turns on me, I’ll just learn to cut my losses then.” She smiles warmly at Kama, and there’s no mistaking that the expression is full of… love. Kama is the god of it; she would know it when she sees it. But this love is gentle; it’s warm, like sunlight. It doesn’t burn to touch it, not the way Kama’s own destroys anything it touches. “So that’s why… I think I’d like to get along with you, too, Kama, if that’s okay with you.”

Kama just sits for a moment, holding the plate of cake carefully so it doesn’t fall on the ground. She thinks a little about her labyrinth, how it had been torn from her hands at the very end, just as she was about to pour forth an all-consuming love. She’s always loved humans the same way she’s despised them--their salvation was never for her own sake, because loving things and expecting nothing but hurt in return not in spite of it but _because_ of it has been a burden she’s been cursed with--but always for the sake of loving, not because she’s cared about them from the bottom of her heart.

But what Ritsuka is showing her here is love, too. It’s been so long since Kama’s been on the receiving end of it, she’s forgotten what it feels like.

Warm and healing, like a gentle sunbeam, not a maelstrom of raging fire and pain.

(Is this what she’d been reaching for so desperately? Was it the hope of someone, _anyone_ , loving her back that drove her to that point? Was that what it was, buried so deep under years of betrayal and resentment and self-loathing?)

She looks over to Ritsuka’s hopeful, expectant face. Though it looks mostly unmarred, Kama can pick out faint scars littering her face. It’s soft and young, like she hasn’t fully grown yet, but there’s a flinty look in her golden eyes that speak of experience belying her youthful appearance. It doesn’t seem so bad, learning to get along with a girl like her.

Kama puts another bite of cake in her mouth. She takes her time consuming it, letting the silence hang in the air for a moment. 

“Pass,” she says again to break the quiet, turning her nose up as if disgusted, but there’s a humor in her red eyes that wasn’t there before. 

“Aw, we were so close!” Ritsuka whines, but she’s wearing a grin to match Kama’s own “disgruntled” expression, and Kama knows she’s understood what Kama hadn’t said aloud.

_Getting along, huh._ Maybe next time she’ll join Ritsuka outside. See the rest of Chaldea. Have some more cake. 

Well, even if it isn’t today or even tomorrow, Kama thinks she’ll have time to get used to it.

**Author's Note:**

> Bother me on twitter at @kyaasuu if you're so inclined


End file.
